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@anne_the_noob14 That’s fantastic! I have the sheet music for the Lord Of The Rings song, Concerning Hobbits, but my piano instructor moved away (she was my sister and she went to college haha) and so it pretty much fell to the wayside because of lack of time. 😛

Now I do debate, I guess. 😉

@taylorclogston Oh okay! Haha, I get that. I live nearby a college and my family is heavily involved, and it’s strongest department is the debate department. And on campus you can tell who is a debater or not. 😆

Hmm. Okay. Public Speaking in general. I have not read a ton of books on it, but I’ve seen one on my brother’s bookshelf called, <i>Talk Like TED</i>, and it looked good. That might be helpful to read.

Honestly, it can be some of the smaller things that make the biggest difference! Standing up straight with balanced weight, looking people in the eyes, making slow purposeful movements instead of short, small ones. Talking in a slow steady rhythm that gives you time to formulate thoughts, is better than going fast and having to throw in tons of “Ums” and “Uhs,” and repeating yourself.

Exuberate confidence, act confident, and people will begin to think you’re confident and it will rub off on you. And really, just practice it. Practice talking to people. Start small, talk to one person and keep in mind your presentation, then try talking to two people, then three. Etc.

I actually heard from a teammate the other day, that putting yourself in strange situations when practicing and yet trying to keep the same level of presentation can help. The example they gave is giving a speech with a pencil in your mouth. It helps make you conscious of your movements and it helps make a habit of pronouncing all your words clearly.

Another thing to try is this impromptu game that I’ve played in my debate class before. You have a handful of people sitting around and the organizer/teacher gives a topic to the first person and boom. They have to start giving a speech about it. No prep time. If they repeat themselves, have a three second pause, or say any crutch word such as “um” or “uh” or sometimes “like,” then anyone in the circle may say “Challenge!” and then take over and start up the speech where they stopped the last person. It is very challenging, but is a fun and competitive game, especially if you play with competitive people. 🙂

If you don’t have enough people to play a game, if it’s you and just one other person, ask them to tally how many times you do any type of habit you are trying to break. For me at one point it was saying “um.” My teammates by direction of my coach began tally it up during my speaking parts. It was sooo annoying but. It paid off. And when I moved and joined a new class and they introduced me to the aforementioned game, I won a lot, because I just would not say “um” or “uh.”

Oh also! Taking video of yourself. One of the <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>most</span> painful things. My couch would take a video of each of us and then force us to watch it. It was insightful and extremely eye-opening. Suddenly you get to sit back and see yourself and your movements, notice the weird habits and ticks you do and realize what speed you were actually going at (when you are performing, what feels normal is actually faster than what feels “normal” when not performing since all your senses are heightened and going crazy) and pacing… all that stuff!

So my suggestion for trying to work on that since you aren’t in a class, would be to make a habit and set a goal (one speech a week?) and practice. In front of a mirror. In front of a camera. With a pencil in your mouth. Topic can be random and improtu. Maybe it’s a simple conversation that you are initial about. One person. Two people. Keep good posture and keep a calm steady pace forward.

If you can’t tell I love public speaking and conversations and logic and am very passionate about how it works. Learning public speaking is definitely a fantastic study. I have found that it was increased my confidence in conversation with strangers and with people I know. It has helped train me to slow down and listen carefully to what people say to me, and then be able to calmly reply in an engaging way. Just the other week I was speaking to someone and realized what a different it makes. Also, learning the posture of conversation and public speaking skills and creating those habits, can clear distractions in real life situations so that you can focus on what people are saying and think about how to respond. People really appreciate it too. Truly.

Anyways. I hope that is helpful!